What is East L.A.?: Kindergartners Documenting Community Stories

AUTHOR
Elisa Fonseca (TEP Graduate, Kindergarten Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
By the end of this unit, students will understand the purpose of the writing process. The goal for this unit is for students to begin storytelling stories of their home life in connection to places in their community. Students will be able to identify as important members of our community and
envision stories that are relevant to them. Students will be able to depict drawings that match writing or as standalone pieces of places in the community that hold meaning to them. Students will be able to showcase their work to develop a sense of pride in their work (publishing). We will learn within the school and the surrounding community to learn the existing stories of those around us. Through this unit, students will begin to understand the idea of “Community Cultural Wealth” with emphasis on the Familial aspect of Cultural Wealth: “Familial Wealth” will serve as the lens for learning about our community of East Los Angeles.

Construyendo Confidence: Exploring Linguistic Abilities through Writing in a Fifth Grade Dual Language Class

AUTHOR
Emely Mancia (TEP Graduate, 5th Grade Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
Students will create a graphic memoir about a special and memorable journey they have experienced using the graphic memoir “MexiKid” as inspiration. This unit will allow students to use their linguistic strengths and build their confidence in their linguistic capabilities through translanguaging, while also sharpening their storytelling abilities. Students will also learn how to integrate certain components, such as visuals, dialogue, imagery, and cognates, to effectively strengthen their stories. The goal of this unit is to empower Dual Language students to share their experiences while strengthening their understanding and confidence in using their linguistic skills.

Say Good Job and Cheer: First Grade Students Explore Kindness Through Writing

AUTHOR
Lara Selenna Ambon Singzon (TEP Graduate, 1st Grade Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
The goal of this unit is for students to develop their skills and confidence in writing and to use writing as a way for them to develop kind and inclusive relationships with their peers. By the end of this unit, students will be familiar with the Writing Process and have completed an informative writing piece. We will begin by introducing and learning about Informative Writing and its text features. Once we are familiar with what informative writing is and the vocabulary necessary to engage in informative writing, students will choose an animal from CKLA’s Skills 4 Green Fern Zoo Reader to write their informative writing pieces about. Then, students will work in partners or groups to take research notes on their animals (Plan in the Writing Process). Students will then begin writing their introductions once we go over the four different types of hooks they can use to grab their readers’ attention (Draft in the Writing Process).

Shaping Minds: Fourth Grade Students Explore Geometry, Identity, and Understanding Through Cognitively Guided Instruction

AUTHOR
Reilly Johnson (TEP Graduate, 4th Grade Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
By the end of the unit, students will have furthered their learning in geometry as well as Measurement and Data. Specifically, students will have learned what an angle is, the different kinds of angles (e.g., acute), how to measure angles using a protractor, the difference between a parallel and perpendicular line, how to identify a line of symmetry, and how to solve for the measurement of an unknown angle. Before the unit begins, students will take a survey to assess their mathematical identity. Each day will begin with a whole-class CGI warm-up (e.g., what do you notice/wonder, which one doesn’t belong, true/false). Depending on the day/content being covered, this warm-up will either act as the mini-lesson itself or will lead us into our mini-lesson. Students will then work with their math partners to complete the independent work 4+ times a week. Students will turn in a worksheet that will act as an exit ticket and be used to help assess their conceptual understanding. Within the unit, we will also be integrating an art lesson where students will design and color geometric art, applying their knowledge of acute, obtuse, and right angles to help them do so. At the end of the unit, students will take an end-of-unit math assessment. Additionally, they will take the same mathematical identity survey in order to track growth or changes in identity as a result of this unit.

Designing Wellness & Community Wellness

AUTHORS
Stephanie Lopez and Destiny Macias (TEP Graduates, Secondary Math Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
Essential Question: How can we integrate green spaces and community wellness hubs to promote health and accessibility in the school medical hub?

This project aligns deeply with my principles of compassion, healing, and care. The project encourages students to think critically about the needs of their community, particularly around spaces that promote well-being, such as clinics or wellness centers. This design process inherently requires students to engage with the idea of community healing, understanding that physical and mental health are integral to the success of a community. By focusing on the design of wellness spaces such as clinics or community health centers, this project encourages students to engage with the physical and mental health needs of their communities. This is particularly relevant for students who may come from backgrounds where access to healthcare and wellness resources is limited.

In the classroom, this project provides an opportunity for students to see how their academic work can serve a greater purpose, specifically by addressing systemic inequities in access to healthcare. Many of my students may have personal or family experiences with healthcare disparities, and the project creates a space for them to reflect on those experiences in a way that values their perspectives. The project’s focus on designing spaces for healing also mirrors my commitment to providing a space where students feel safe, seen, and heard. By guiding students through the process of designing wellness spaces, you are not only teaching them geometric concepts but also promoting healing and emotional growth, supporting their development both as students and as individuals who can make a positive impact on their communities. -Stephanie Lopez

The Clean Water Challenge

AUTHOR
Victoria Taylor (TEP Graduate, Secondary Science Teacher, NOYCE Scholar)

UNIT SUMMARY
Essential Question: How does human activity impact the water quality in our communities, and how can we engineer solutions to contamination and acidification?

As a teacher, my core values are to design lessons that build community and feature student-led inquiry. This unit allows students to lead the investigation of the water samples by designing their own experiments to test the samples for contaminants. Additionally, students are empowered to engineer water filters that they must revise and improve in their teams. All of these tasks foster community as students share ideas with one another and collaborate using group roles during labs. My plans are most heavily informed by Geneva Gay’s theory of Culturally Responsive Teaching. This project centers on content learning (acids, bases, and neutralizations) in a local context (water pollution and acidification). Students learn about how poor water quality is affecting their communities and are empowered to come up with solutions to these issues using their chemistry knowledge. This project-based learning unit also highlights the importance of learning as a social process and requires students to work together to problem solve and design a working filter. Additionally, students are empowered to learn from their peers in jigsaw reading activities that reinforce that students are capable of teaching and learning from one another. -Victoria Taylor

Epigenetic Impacts of Food Scarcity

AUTHOR
Nao Yamama (TEP Graduate, Secondary Science Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
Essential Question: How does food scarcity impact genetic expression and community health?

As I talked about in depth in my segment 1, I care deeply about the well-being of my students and align myself with my school’s mission of the whole child approach. This PBL is aimed at improving the health and quality of life of not only my students, but their families, and their future families. I also talked a lot about recognizing the backgrounds of my students and understanding their circumstances. Instead of viewing it as a deficit, I strive to utilize this information to provide lessons relevant to their lives. By implementing lessons that impact their lives, I hope students feel a sense of agency and empowerment to create ideas that deepen their understanding of content standards.

This PBL is informed by constructivism, which emphasizes student-centered, interactive learning where students build knowledge through collaboration and real-world problem-solving. Social constructivism highlights the role of cultural and social contexts, which is evident in the integration of cross-disciplinary collaboration and local community issues. Critical pedagogy encourages students to critically examine societal inequities, empowering them to propose actionable solutions to food insecurity. Additionally, culturally relevant pedagogy connects learning to students’ cultural contexts, fostering academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. Together, these theories create a holistic, inclusive, and impactful learning experience. -Nao Yamada

Growing Change: Students Designing for Community Impact

AUTHOR
Alyssa Gee (TEP Graduate, Secondary Math Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
Students will design a community garden tailored to their home communities, integrating mathematical concepts like area, perimeter, and scaling with research on hunger and sustainability. The project emphasizes student agency, collaboration, and real-world problem-solving, encouraging students to engage with local stakeholders and propose actionable solutions. By connecting math to social justice, students explore how their designs can address food insecurity and create sustainable, equitable spaces.

Exploring Green Spaces in Cities vs. Suburbs with the Pythagorean Theorem

AUTHOR
Sam Garcia  (TEP Graduate, Secondary Math Teacher)

UNIT SUMMARY
My plans reflect my values by giving a lot of the work and planning to my students. I believe that due to the nature of the project being centered around what they know and see, they will be able to meet high expectations of coming up with creative ways to figure out the distance to the closest park from their home. Not only this, but I believe that by beginning to see and understand the differences, specifically the lack of green spaces in urban living versus suburban, they will be able to complete multiple CERs (Claim-Evidence-Reasonings) because they will feel strongly on the topic, thus meeting mine and the school’s expectations of using the template. Finally, although many students are afraid of presenting in front of the class, I hope that by presenting to 2-3 students at a time, they will feel more comfortable and confident in their topic and speaking.

Gloria Ladson-Billings’ culturally relevant pedagogy focuses on incorporating students’ backgrounds and experiences into the classroom to foster belonging and engagement from the students. In passing, I’ve heard my students making “jokes” about how they’re in the trenches, and that they’re not the type of population to go to college, making themselves believe that they can’t achieve higher-level thinking. However, by including their experiences and knowledge of the urban cityscape and what it’s like living there, I want to demonstrate to them that their knowledge is useful, and it can be used alongside the academics we are learning. I want my students to begin to understand that math specifically is a way in which we understand the world around us, and the knowledge we get from our everyday lives goes hand-in-hand with what we can observe using math.